Steam plant



J. RUTHS STEAM PLANT Nov. 8, 1932.

Filed Jan. 25. 1928 2 Shee'as-Shee'rI l FQOM ,46a/Munro@ 'gulllr'lu YAMADA A JE- Nov. s, 1932. ,Q RUTHS f 1,887,218l

STEAM PLANT Filed Jan. 23. 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lNVg O \o d BY n v fsf/M4 AT'TORNEY Patented Nov. 8, 1932 *UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE I JOHANNES BUTHS, OF `DJURSHOLM, SWEDEN, ASSIGNOR TO RUTHSIACCUMULATOR AKTIEBOLAG, OF STOCKHOLM, SWIEIDIEYN,` A CORPORATIONV'OF SWEDEN STEAM PLANT Application led January 23,1928, Serial No. 248,918, and in Germany January 28, 1927.

by means of an accumulator operating under variations of pressure.

When a motor receives steam from an accumulator, the means supplying the stream to the motor must be designed to give van adequate supply of steam to take care of demand for energy when the accumulator isy well discharged. This means that the means yfor supplying steam to the motor will be dimensioncd to more than amply take care of the supply when the accumulator isv well charged. c

Consequently, there'is a danger that a large supply. of steam from an accumulator to a motor whenthe accumulator is well charged might injure the motor. A governor is used to control the supply of steam to the motor. Should this governor suddenly openthe steam supplyvalve mechanism and the accumulator be well charged, too much steam might be supplied to the motor before the motor would have a chance to react through the governor to close od the` steam supply. y

Myinvention has for its purpose to overcome the danger or inconvenience above pointed out in connection with the type of plantabove pointed out. The ypurpose is to limitL the amount of steam passing to the motor from an accumulator to prevent harm being done to the motor by an over supply of steam. The purpose of the invention is further to accomplish this result in a simple manner by providing a mechanism responsive to accumulator pressure which is adapted to limit the movement of a member or factor of the speed responsive controlling mechanism. Thus I provide a simple arrangement which can be applied to an existing plant for accomplishing the purpose set out.

My invention willy be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, of which:

Fig. 1 shows a valve mechanism in a steam supply pipe connecting an accumulator with a motor governed by a speed governor and having a. mechanism adapted to cooperate mulator .pressure responsive means acts directly upon the flow of'pressure fluid; and Fig. 5 shows a steam plant layout with my invention applied thereto.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1, the

apparatus shown in this figure is associated with an accumulator and a motor. Valve 10 is in the conduit conducting steam`from the accumulator to the motor. Valve disks 11 control How of steam through the. valve. 12 is thevalve stem. 13 is a'lever pivoted at 14. Aspeed governor 15 is arranged to be moved in accordance with speed of the motor. As the motor speed increases the balls 16 of the governor move outwardly raising member 17. Lever 13 is rpivoted to member 17 and the left hand end, as shown, is raised when the balls of the governor swing outwardly. This lowers the other end of the lever 13 indicated at 18 which lowers the valve stem 12 and closes the valve more or less. Pipe 19 is connected to the steam space of the accumulator. accumulator is transmitted to housing 20 on top of piston 21 so that an increase ofpressure moves the piston downwardly. The reaction is taken up by spring 22. There is a definite position of piston 21 for each value of pressure in the accumulator. Stem 23 has an abutment 24 which is arranged so that an abutment 25 at the end of stem 12 will corn tact with the abutment 24, the parts being in certain relative relations. As the pressure in the accumulator increases, piston 21 moves downwardly and abutment 24 is moved downwardly. Stem 12 cannot move farther up than the point at which abutment 25 meets abutment 24. Thus if piston 21 is way down, the stem 12 cannot move up veryfar Thus pressure in the Y and there is a decided limitation to the amount of opening of valve 10.

It will be understood that the accumulator is of the type wherein steam is introduced into a body of water and the state of charge depends on the pressure in the ac cumulator. It will be seen that as the pressure rises in the accumulator, a corresponding limitation is placed on the ability of the speed governor to open the valve which controls flow of steam from the accumulator to the motor.

rlhe accumulator may be a reserve accumulator in a central power station which is normally completely charged and only discharges in case of unusual circumstances; or the accumulator may continuously or inter mittently receive steam from a boiler.

In Fig. 2, parts corresponding to those of Fig. 1 are numbered with like letters. Lever 13 is a bell crank pivoted at 14. The abutment 24 works in the same way but this time against a member 26 which has cam surfaces 27, 28, 29 and 30 adapted to coact with rollers 31 which in turn are connected to valve stems 32 to which are attached valves 33. rllhe valves are opened'successively one after the other by movement of member 26 to the left as shown. 34 designates a seriesV of supply nozzles for the turbine. In this case an increase of pressure in the accumulator correspondingly decreases the number of valves which the governor is able to open in order to supply steam to the turbine.

In Fig. 3, a Huid pressure operating mechanism for the valve 10 comprises a piston 35. Fluid is admitted to either side of the piston through ports 36 and 37 which are controlled by pistons 38 and 39 attached to a stem 40 which is connected to al rod 41. The accumulator abutment 24 is arranged to limit the movement of rod 41. As the speed of the motor decreases, the balls of the governor move together which lowers member 17 thus lowering stem 40. This admits pressure Huid such as oil through passage 37 to the under side of piston 35 and discharges the same from the upper side thereof so that piston 35 is moved upwardly `thus opening the valve. After abutment 24 is well up (as up is indicated on thedrawing) the movement of rod 41 is limited so as to limit the on-rush of steam which would otherwise take place on quick opening of valve l() at high accumulator pressure.

In the arrangement shown in Fig. 4, a fluid pressure piston 43 is acted on by fluid pressure in chamber 44 on one side and by spring 45 on the other. Fluid is continuously supplied through conduit 46 and there is a continuous outlet through conduit 47. These conduits permit oil or other fluid to flow through chamber 44. A valve 48 in conduit 46 is controlled by speed governor 15. On increase of speed, valve 48 is closed more or less to decrease the pressure in chamber 44 and close valve 10. The accumulator limiting device in this case comprises a valve 49 which is in conduit 47. If the accumulator pressure is high, this valve is opened wide so that it is impossible for the pressure in cham` ber 44 to build up quickly to an extent which will unduly open the main valve 10.

In Fig. 5, the steam plant comprises boilers which supply Vsteam to a main conduit 61.`

A conduit 62 supplies steam to the turbine 63 which is made up of various stages 64, 65, etc. The shaft 66 of the turbine controls speed governor 15 which in this case moves a member 67 which acts as a baffling plate to control discharge of a pressure fluid from a conduit 68. Pressure fluid such as oil is supplied by a pump 69 which may be driven from the turbine shaft. Conduit 68 is connected to a conduit 7 0 which is connected to control mechanism 71, 72 which are adapted to open and close valves 73 and 74 respectively in succession, the arrangement being such that a decrease of speed first increases the opening of one valve and then the other. Conduit 68 is also connected to a conduit 75 which is connected to a housing 76 in which is a piston 77 controlling movement of a valve 78 which admits accumulator steam to v iiston 77 is moved to open valve 78 to admit steam from the accumulator to the turbine. Pipe 79 conveys steam to the accumulator limiting device 80 which restricts movement of baflling member 67 in the manner explained with reference to the preceding figures. The abutment 24 prevents adownward movement of baffling member 67 such that too much steam is supplied from the accu mulator.

In this plant, steam is generated independently of steam demand and the surplus of generated steam over momentary consumption passes through conduit 81 to the accumulator 82. In conduit 81 is an overiiow valve 83 which is responsive to pressure in front of the same and operates to maintain a constant pressure in the boiler and in conduit 61.

It will be readily understood that my invention may be applied to many different types of regulators in many different ways. Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1 A steam plant comprising, in combination, a steam generator, a motor, means to conduct steam from said generator to said motor,

an accumulator, a passage for conducting steam from said accumulator to said motor, valve mechanism in said passage, a governor responsive to speed of the motor, means whereby said governor controls said valve mechanism including a member moved by the governor and meansk variable in accordance With different pressures in the accumulator to provide different limitations-of movement of said member for different pressures in the accumulator, said last mentioned means operating to decrease the maximum possible opening of said valve mechanism asy the accumulator pressure increases.

2. A steam plant comprising, in combination, a steam generator, a motor, means to conduct steam from said generator to said motor, an accumulator, a passage for conducting steam from said accumulator to said motor, valve mechanism in said passage, a governor responsive to speed of the motor, means whereby said governorcontrols said valve mechanism including a. member moved by the governor and meansvariablel in ac-v cordance With different pressures in the accumulator to limit the movement of said member in increased degree to decrease the maximum possible opening of said valve mechanism on rise of pressurer in the accumula-tor.

3. A steam plant comprising, in combination, a steam generator, a motor, means to conduct' steam from said generator to said `motor, an accumulator, means to conduct steam from the accumulator tothe motor, valve mechanism to control supply of steam to the motor, a governor responsive to speed of the motor to control the valve mechanism and means responsive to increased pressure in the accumulator for reducing the maximum possible opening ofthe valve mechanism by the governor. s

4. A lsteam plant comprising, in combination, a steam generator, a motor, means to conduct steam from said generator to said motor, an accumulator, means to conduct steam from the accumulator to the motor, valve mechanism to control supply of steam to the motor, a governor responsive to speed of the motor to control the valve mechanism and means responsive to pressure in the accumulator for limiting themaximum possible opening of the valve mechanism by the governor on increase of'pressure in the accumulator, the degree of limitation being different for each value of pressure in the accumulator.

5. A steam plant comprising, kin combination, a steam generator, a turbine, means to conduct steam from said generator to said turbine, an accumulator, means to conduct steam from the accumulator to the turbine, a plurality of valves controlling supply of steam to the turbine from the accumulator, a governor responsive to speed of the turbine for opening `the valves in succession andmeans responsive to pressure in the accumulator for reducing the number of valves which the governor can open as the pressure in the accumulator rises.

6. In a steam plant, a steam generator, a motor, means to conduct steam Jfrom said generator to said motor, an accumulator, apassage Jfor conducting steam from said accumulator to said motor, valve mechanism in said passage, and means controlling said valve mechanism to vary flow inversely to turbine speed and additional means for decreasing 'the maximum possible flow as the accumulator pressure increases.

7. In a steam plant, a steam generator, a motor, means to conduct steam from said generator to said motor, an accumulator, a passage for conducting steam from said accumulator to said motor, valve mechanism insaid passage, speed responsive means for controlling said valve mechanism, and means responsive to accumulatorpressure controlling the movement of said valve mechanism to decrease the maximum possible opening of said valve mechanism as the accumulator pressure increases.

8. In a steam plant, in combination, a steam generator, a motor, means to conduct steam from said generator to said motor, a steam accumulator normally operating under relatively great variations of pressure, a passage for steam from said accumulator to said motor, a valve in said passage, control means for said valve responsive to speed variations of said motor tending to increase the openingL of said valve upon a decrease in speed and means responsive to pressure in said accumulator to reduce the maximum 'possible opening of said valve by said control means as the pressure in the accumulator increases.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aix my signature.-

JOHANNES RUTHS.

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